


Back to You

by D0ll



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: AU, F/M, First Love, Past Abuse, Reunited and It Feels So Good, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 13:34:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4393865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/D0ll/pseuds/D0ll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>True love never dies. Rhaella doesn't die during childbirth and meets Bonifer again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back to You

**Author's Note:**

> I've seen prequel Bonifer x Rhaella fanfics, au Bonifer x Rhaella fanfics were they meet in the present dqy and I've seen fanfics where Rhaella survives but she doesn't meet Bonifer again, and like WHY NOT?! 
> 
> He's alive, she's alive, Aerys is dead, what's stopping them from being together again? Plus Bonifer loves her way too much to hear she's alive and let Rhaella get passed around the usurpers houses getting treated like a hostage by people that hate her like Robert. There should just be more Rhaella and Bonifer AUs, okay. 
> 
> Also I'm not sure what Bonifer was doing immediately after Robert's rebellion was won since he's not a main character so sorry if it's inconsistent.

A man came in a long gray cloak and even though Rhaella can't see his face, somehow she remembered the posture and the figure. But she didn't dare to say his name, she doesn't dare to utter one word, thinking the spell will be broke if she spoke, if she dared to move a muscle.

Fairy tales and songs aren't true, haven't the years taught you that much if nothing else, foolish-

But then the man removed his hood, the years have withered him and made him skinner and more solemn than the laughing knight Rhaella remembered, but there's no doubt this is Ser Bonifer Hasty. Her first love and her only love, apart from her children.

"My lady, I-I- " He stumbled over his words and didn't get a chance to finish his sentence because Rhaella wrapped her arms around him and slowly as if he was in a dream Bonifer clutched his hand to her slender back. She thought she heard him sniffle but can't be sure because Jon Arryn, the upsurper, cleared his throat. Rhaella had forgotten he was there she was sure Bonifer had to. Jon no doubt wanted to remind her with his unwelcome interruption that her behavior was unbecoming of a lady, but to the seven hells with decorum and duty, she's been nothing but dutiful her whole life. Rhaella refused to let anyone especially Jon, the turn cloak, spoil this moment. Bonifer more mindful of her honor and rank than she was tried to softy unwrap her hands from him, but she stubbornly refused to let go, and he doesn't try again. 

"I would like to take credit for bringing Ser Bonifer but truth be told, when he heard news you were here no one could keep him away," there was an awkward pause "I'll leave you two to get reacquainted." The Lord of the Vale quietly shuffled out leaving the two lost loves to get reaquanted. 

 

Some books Rhaella visited again as an adult weren't as good as she remembered them being as a child. Before she thought it best Bonifer had died in the war or gotten himself married. "I will always be yours", he told her once as a young man but old men forget. She wouldn't hold it against him for moving on, Bonifer was a good man and deserved to find a good woman, someone who could take care of him; keep his linens in order and his cloaks pressed and give him true born children. Rhaella never asked what had happened because she didn't want to know, less finding out what became of Bonifer would soil the memory of their love, while her ignorance would let that love remain pure and unblemished. 

But to Rhaella's delight Bonifer never remarried and it satisfied the selfish part of her that wanted to keep him to herself. Being with Bonifer felt as lovely as she remembered so many years ago and he had truely meant what he said all those many years ago. Rhaella had said the same words back to him, she hadn't lied either. She was always his, even when she married another and bore another's children Bonifer was always the one in her heart.

Rhaella's grandfather had told her when she came weeping to him about her unwanted bethoral to her brother, hoping the man who was so strong in his youth would convice his son to stop the bethoral, after all Aegon loved Rhaella the best out of all his grandchildren. But the years took their toll on him, there was no more fight in the old king anymore. He tried to comfort Rhaella by saying it was for the best she marry Aerys, she was born in the lap of luxury, what could this knight from a low house give her but barren land and small keep?

Rhaella would be happy in the Storms lands, anywhere with Bonifer she'd be happy, she remembered telling him. 'And he never hurts me grandfather', she thought resentfully, how easy it was to hate her grandfather and father when they spoke to her of duty and yet each married for love. She tried to bury her bitterness deep with in, it was best she not hold resentment against dead men. They couldn't see what Aerys would become, she was his sister and hadn't seen it. Even his best friend, the brilliant Tywin Lannister hadn't been able to see it. 

With a strange hollowness, as if she was a third person observer and wasn't affected by the war, she wondered dispassionatly what will the future bring for Westeros. Maybe it was because she had lost everything, there was nothing left to lose, that she could. Rhaella remembered the young Baratheons boys coming to court so many years ago when they were just children. Stannis was morose and solemn while Robert was loud and obnoxious. She doesn't think the crown will suit him, but with Tywin as his father in law, maybe the realm will run as peacefully as it did when Tywin was Aery's hand and her brother was still kind.

She cared not what happened to the realm. Her beautiful son and grandchildren are dead. Let the seven kingdoms rot with their murdered bodies for all she cared. 

An awful thought ran through her head that she instantly was disgusted by. That the rebellion was for the best. It was best that her family line was extinguished. Now there will be no more mad kings, no more sisters forced to marry brothers, no more dragon dreams that never come true. 

Bonifer woke up and clutched her to him, like he's frightened she'll be token from him again. 

"What is it my darling?" He asked her when he noticed she was awake. Rhaella shoke her head, pressed her cheek to his chest and listened to his heart beat slow but steady. She was wrong she still had someone. She smiled and it felt like it's the first time she's smiled in ages and maybe it has been, since they were both young and green unaffected by the world. Gods, he makes her feel young again. 

 

They get married on a cloudy summer day. A dreary day at a small sept outside of Storms end, it is the farthest thing from her first marriage that Rhaella can imagine, and she is thankful for that. Thankful for the few guest instead of hundreds there's had been at her first wedding, thankful for the simple and plain gown she wore instead of the fine jeweled corset. She was thankful this day is just the opposite of her first wedding. Because Rhaella cried tears of joy instead of tears of grief on this day and wants no reminder of her first marriage at all. Instead of a face full of dread like Aerys wore, Bonifer looked at her like she's the loveliest creature in the world, like she is still the sweet fresh faced girl he crowned the Queen of love and beauty and not the hardened hag she is. When the septon announced them wed Bonifer cupped her silver head in his hand and presses his smiling lips to her's sealing their union with a kiss. She felt tears slide down his cheeks and sniffled herself she dabbed at his withered stubbley cheeks with her thumbs drying them. 

"Can't believe this is real, you are really mine." He says like a prayer Rhaella nodded her head, she can't believe it either, it's like a dream. 

They step outside and she hears the gray clouds that had been threatening a storm earlier now booming with thunder and lighting up the sky as a bright flash of lightening strikes. How appropriate the storm lands are living up to their name. 

"I picked quite the day to get married." Bonifer remarks his laughter booming as loud as the storm. The rain begins to pour down on them in buckets and they are drenched almost instantly. There was an insecurity beneath his laughter Rhaella senses though she's not sure how, she could never tell what kind of mood Aerys was in. Is this how it always was when people were in love? 

"The perfect day." Rhaella said joyfully grasping at his face and kissed him to put his insecurities at rest, she doesn't need Baelor's sept, she doesn't need a fine gown, she doesn't need a wedding feast, or jugglers and pyromancers to entertain her. She's had that and it made her no more happy. All she needed was him. 

Rhaella splashed him by jumping in a deep puddle and Bonifer bent down the splash water at her. 'We are like children playing in the rain!" Bonifer laughed she could hardly care, gods he made her feel young again. 

In the days past, Rhaella had been reluctant to agree to the marriage she was too old and besides what would marriage prove about their love? She had been married to Aerys for years and he never loved her nor she love him.

But Bonifer found comfort in the Gods especially later in life, even when they were young he often spoke to her about how he'd one day marry her and travel far far away. He wanted her hand in marriage while other men would just want her in bed. And as the years went in he only became more committed to his faith she knew it hurt his pride and his virtue to refuse to marry him. 

"Even now she won't marry me, I'm still too low for her." She heard him lament to one of his men, she wanted to rush in there and tell him that wasn't true, that wasn't it all! But what other reasonable explanation could she give him? She just didn't want to do it? If it meant so much to him she would, who was she to refuse him the one thing she could do to make him happy, when he had given her so much?

And now she was happy that she agreed, marriage would be sweet surely with Bonifer, her one true love. Bonifer the good and the mad king had nothing in common. 

 

They'd been discussing children just a night prior, Rhaella informs him one day soon after the wedding that she still gets her monthly blood and Bonifer's eyes widen with love and hope. She was old, too old to be able to carry another child as safely as when she was young. The wise part of her mind says, but the unwise promises her that this time Rhaella can have children with a man she loves, ones she won't have to hand over to the king on his whim, or to duty, or to the seven kingdoms. She can give Bonifer the true born children he fantasied about when they were young, "Children with your purple eyes and my easy smile." 

But then she misses a week, then two weeks, and one day Bonifer found herself sobbing over stark white sheets, not a speck of her moon's blood on them and he knew. She sobbed harder and Bonifer wrapped his arms around her, what is a wife with a barren womb to a man, less than nothing. Rhaegor, her sweet sweet son had left his princess as soon as she started having trouble carrying children, and Ellia had already given him two healthy heirs. Aerys had been unusually kind with her first miscarriage but then she had another miscarriage and his kindness quickly turned to wrath and suspicion. 

"It doesn't matter, I'm happy with only you, I only want you." He tried to assure her his words mumbled by his mouth pressed tightly to her neck. But still she remained quiet, silently crying. She wanted to give Bonifer the heir he deserved, but she also wanted this baby herself, a baby which sprang from love and not duty. Her role in life has been to give her husband heirs, and now without this ability she feels empty, like a husk of a woman. 

Why were the gods so cruel? They couldn't let her have fertility for just one more year? After they let all her children and grandchildren die.

 

They love eachother greatly, but they were still human, prone to fights and arguments, most of the fights were short and ended with one or both of them apologizing profusely. This was the first big fight they ever had, Rhaella screamed at him, and Bonifer shouted at her hateful mean things that stung curses that she would think as bellow his virtue. She ran away so he wouldn't see her tears. 'Aerys beat me and raped me and never saw me cry, neither would he' she thought. But he chased after her, without the heavy skirts weighing her down he was faster and quickly caught up to her. Bonifer grabbed her arm and twisted her around, "Rhaella," He began to say but the words are lost when she put her arms up to shield her face and cowered beneath him on the floor. She had looked down and seen his other hand balled into a fist and instinctively protected herself as she had before.

But there was never a hit, only her body slid into his lap, "Never Rhaella, never. I would never hurt you. I'm only meant to apologize for what I said back there and you kept running away and I thought I'd lose you. I'm so sorry. You must know I'd never hurt you, never, never, never." His tears soaked through her clothes, she could hear his words, but they were distant and she didn't stop her shaking, Aerys mad fits, Rhaegor her favorite son dying, his children and her young grandchildren all murdered. It was like she was the memories were paralyzing her, memories she tried so to keep buried. 

Bonifer tucked her into bed and sat by her bedside until morning, when the first rays of dawn shine through the windows and made her eyes open. Rhaella was immensely relieved that Bonifer hadn't called a maester in to examine her, no maester or member of the citadel or nurse could fix what ailed her. 

"Rhaella," Bonifer sighs in relief when she sat up and wrapped her arms around him to show him she's alright .

There's a million questions on his tongue, "Aerys never stroke you did he?" But he knew the answer to that doesn't he? The mad king was second to none in his parania and cruelty. The thought of Rhaella, sweet Rhaella being hurt for years and years with no one there to protect her, it killed him.

She felt his tears fall upon her and wordlessly she beckoned him to bed. He slides in with her under the cover and wrapped his arms protectively around her. "I'll always protect you and never harm you." He said like a solemn oath.

 

Bonifer came into her chambers on a run, breathlessly he called her name, "Rhaella! Darling!" 

"Is something wrong, husband?" She asked concerned rising to her feet. 

"Your children," he took her hands in his and said "They're alive."

"It can't be." She turned away from his wide and happy eyes she can't hope again only to be disappointed. 

Wordlessly he handed her a letter, with shaking hands she opened and read it. 

Rhaella didn't spend much time with her youngest son, by the time of Viserys birth Aerys was at his most mad and paranoid. When Rhaella tried to protect her young child from knowing the disturbing truth about his father's sickness, Aerys saw her attempts as treason. Rhaegor had always been more his mother's child than his father's and not wanting history to repeat itself the king ordered for her to never be alone with the prince. Viserys was only eight when the rebellion began and swept away by the last of her loyal knights to be taken to the free cities. She believed she was dying so she didn't come with her youngest children. She hoped to pass from this world in a soft bed rather than suffer on a ship and have her son and witness her death. Rhaella hadn't known if the ship made a success voyage or not, until now she had assumed the worst.

Viserys handwriting wasn't perfect, but it wasn't the chunky and large letters he had written in when he last showed her his letters. But still she could see the way his words tilted to the left slightly, this was her son's handwriting she knew and sobbed from joy.

Ser Willem is dead he tells her. Rhaella lamented the death of one of the few true knights she had known. The old knight had always been respectful and kind to her. He was the one her taught Rhaegor sword play. She had hoped he could be around longer to teach her Viserys too. Her son tells her in his letter that he doesn't know what to do. 

"Please a paper, ink and quill," she said in a rush snapping her fingers forgetting for a second she wasn't queen and had no handmaidens to wait on her. Dutifully Bonifer gets the things she needed and she sat at his desk furiously writing back to him.

  

Rhaella advised him to gather their things and leave before the servants can steal it from them. She wrote for him journey to Achron of Tyrosh where he and his sister will grow up protected by the unsullied and in a palace. He will learn swordsplay and Daenerys will learn embroidery and the arts just like sher mother and grandmother had been taught. She saw them in her mind's eye, away from court, laughing and sipping brandy wine everyday growing older, wiser and stronger. Soon Viserys will be a man and he'll take back the throne from the upsurpers with fire and blood like her ancestor Aegon the conqueror. Rhaella finished her letter by telling him how much she loved him and missed him a tear drop hiring the bottom edge of the parchment making a bit of it black ink run.

Confused Bonifer wiped her tears away and asked her what's wrong. 

"I'm just so happy." She said and lept to her feet, her arms circled around his neck. For the first time in a long time, she felt like a dragon.


End file.
